Conventionally, there is an apparatus that rotates and tilts a top board (receiving device) with a patient placed thereon, about the axis of a horizontal shafts, to turn the top board to a standing position, an inclined position and a horizontal position (recumbent position), and picks up images based on imaging positions (see Patent Document 1, for example). When turning the top board, as shown in Patent Document 1, an X-ray tube (radiation emitting device) and an X-ray detector (radiation detecting device) tilt as interlocked therewith, and so does a strut (support device) supporting the X-ray tube.
On the other hand, there is an apparatus that includes a collimator (irradiation field control device) disposed at an emission side of the X-ray tube for controlling an irradiation field emitted from the X-ray tube, and picks up images while moving the X-ray tube and X-ray detector parallel to the top board along a longitudinal direction of the patient in a state of the collimator operated for a restriction narrower than an irradiation field projected to the X-ray detector. Such imaging is defined in this specification as “slot imaging”. There is also an apparatus that combines the above-noted technique of turning the top board and the technique of carrying out imaging with the irradiation field restricted to be narrow (i.e. slot imaging).
[Patent Document 1]
Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2003-334186 (pages 2-6, FIGS. 1, 2, 5 and 7)